


SHU

by winsomepony



Category: Orange is the New Black
Genre: Comfort, F/F, Prison, Solitary Confinement, reference to dub-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-28
Updated: 2013-07-28
Packaged: 2017-12-21 15:01:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/901646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winsomepony/pseuds/winsomepony
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex visits Piper in SHU, post Season 1 finale.</p>
            </blockquote>





	SHU

It had been two weeks. Piper knew this because she kept track of the meals. She was pretty sure they fed her twice a day in SHU. So she made a slash on the wall each time. After two slashes, she drew a circle around them. The circles were the days. She’d made an X after the circles on the days when she’d been allowed a shower. There were 4 X’s. This counting took up a fair amount of time on its own. She had only her finger nails to work with, and she kept them short. But the walls were dirty. She was pretty sure the marks were only scrapes in the dirt, not actual scratches on the stone surface of the wall. But she spent what felt like hours each day deepening them, grinding them with what remained of the jagged stumps of her finger nails.

Fourteen circles. That meant two weeks. Sometimes she got confused, and spent long minutes trying to remember every meal, and reviewing them in her head to be sure her count was correct. Counting the days had become important. She didn't know why, exactly – it’s not like she had any clue when they’d let her out – but whenever she thought she’d made a mistake, panic welled in her until she recounted the slashes on the wall, the circles, reviewed her memory of each meal, and satisfied herself that she was correct. Fourteen days. She was almost positive.

Then the door opened, and Alex was there. 

Piper was sitting on the floor, knees drawn loosely to her chest, eyes glazed over. She thought the meal before last had been the mashed up carrots. But had it maybe been the rubbery eggs? Or was that two meals ago? The panic was just starting to edge in when the door opened, and she almost cursed whoever was interrupting her concentration, before her brain registered what her eyes told her. 

She stared for a long moment, head tilted in puzzlement. The door clanged shut again.

“Ten minutes, Vause.”

“Alex.” The word fell from her lips like a breath, and she realized the look of horror on Alex’s face was directed at her. 

“Piper?” Piper saw Alex’s chest heave convulsively as the air whooshed out of it in a gasp, and her voice sounded like she desperately hoped Piper would reassure her that she wasn't Piper, that this thing she saw before her wasn't her ex-lover, the playful, earnest blonde who was so eager to please, so quick to smile. 

And then Alex was kneeling in front of her, and her hands reached tentatively for Piper’s face. Piper flinched, even as her brain registered how uncharacteristic it was of Alex to do anything tentatively. Alex froze as soon as she saw the flinch, but then the movement continued, and when her still-soft hands brushed the tears from Piper’s cheeks, Piper didn't move away from the touch.

Alex’s hands slid down her arms, and she frowned at their flaccidity. They captured her hands, and Alex raised them gently to her lips, kissed the faint bruises and healing cuts still apparent on her knuckles, the stitches where Piper had been cut.

Alex stood and drew Piper with her to the bed. Piper followed, docile, still shocked, as Alex laid her on it, stripped off her own shirt before reaching for the hem of Piper’s.

“H-how…?” Piper’s voice trailed off as Alex drew her shirt over her head, casting it aside. Alex slid her hands up Piper’s waist, not quite hiding a wince at the hips that jutted out painfully. She bent her head, kissed the protruding bones with lips that were almost unbearably soft.

“Shhh,” she murmured between these small kisses. “I’m here. Shhh.” At gentle pressure from Alex, Piper laid on the thin mattress. Alex kissed her way up Piper’s flesh, the first touch Piper had had since Doggett had smeared blood on her naked chest, and she could see Piper recoil from the now-unfamiliar nearness of another human being, even as she arched her back, pressing herself closer to Alex.

Alex kissed her neck gently, chastely. She’d never known anyone who could crush her heart like Piper, and she’d never met someone she felt such tender, fierce protectiveness towards. When she’d seen the guards leading a sedated Piper down the hall to the exit, it was only Nicky’s warning hand on her arm that had stopped her from doing something foolish herself.

Now, she cupped Piper’s cheek in her palm, and allowed their lips to meet, slowly, carefully. She forced herself to slow down when the taste of Piper stole her breath away. Piper made a quiet sound under her, and Alex couldn't help increasing the pressure of her lips, flicking her tongue cautiously into Piper’s mouth before claiming it more fully. Now Piper moaned into her, and   
Alex opened her eyes, watching as Piper’s fluttered closed. 

Alex allowed the hand that was on Piper’s cheek to travel back downward as she kissed the blonde, tracing the pronounced collarbone, the line of her shoulder, the gentle slope along the side of her breast, those thin hips again, pausing just above the elastic band at Piper’s waist. Piper sucked Alex’s tongue greedily in encouragement, and Alex obliged her, slipping fingers below the waistband of her prison garments, to the part of her that, at least, was still her. 

Piper whimpered as their lips broke contact when Alex shifted to the side for a better angle. She felt Alex smile against her skin in response as her fingers found their mark. Piper gasped and opened her eyes; Alex was smiling down at her, eyes warm, twinkling a little with pleasure. Alex’s fingers swirled, teasing, and Piper’s body made her readiness clear enough to widen Alex’s smile into a near-grin.

“My god, you’re beautiful,” Alex whispered into Piper’s ear, breath tickling her neck, and Piper shivered as her body came fully awake. Her hips moved up as she arched her back into Alex’s touch. Alex obliged her, slipping one finger, then two, into the folds that embraced her. Piper’s breath hitched, and it was music to Alex’s ears, a song that only she knew how to play, whatever Piper might tell herself or anyone else about it.

She watched as Piper’s eyes widened in surprise, as they always seemed to when orgasm loomed. She nibbled the blonde’s earlobe, knowing her body, knowing how to touch it, stroke it, bring it to climax, and reveling in that knowledge, that ability to please her lover, to show her, just a little, of that intense burning that never seemed to leave Alex’s own heart.  
Piper bit her lip, looked at Alex, eyes pleading for something she couldn’t articulate, and saw Alex’s eyes grant it as the waves swelled and crashed over her.

“Two minutes!” The harsh sound from outside the door roused Piper from her post-orgasmic half-drowse.

“God, no, please don’t go, Alex. I’ll go crazy in here,” she whispered, because she was too afraid to even speak out loud, afraid she would open her eyes and this would be a crazy hallucination, and Alex would still hate her and…

“Hush.” There was no rebuke in Alex’s voice, but one finger (that Piper could smell herself on) crossed her lips gently. “You’re going to be okay. We’re going to be okay. They’ll let you out. And I’ll be there.”

“You….?” Piper looked at her, those puppy-dog eyes that Alex knew might well rip her up again, and it didn’t matter, because the truth was, it was inevitable, she wasn’t done riding this ride, and probably never would be; her words to Larry were the ones that taunted her in the night, when Piper wasn’t there, but the truth was, she’d ride this free-falling ride just as long as she could, as long as Piper would let her, as long as Piper would have her.

“I love you. I’ll be there. Okay?” Reluctantly, Alex sat up, picked up her shirt, then on impulse, tossed it to Piper and took hers instead. Piper caught it and hugged it close to her chest, like it might keep her from drowning. Alex could only hope it would.

Something flickered in Piper’s sluggish brain.

“How…how’d you…?”

“Mendez is back,” Alex said, a curtain dropping down behind her eyes. Piper frowned, not getting it.

“And, what, he brought you down for a conjugal visit out of the kindness of his heart?”

“No,” Alex replied, her voice flat. “Not out of the kindness of his heart.” Understanding dawned in Piper’s eyes.

“Oh, Alex,” she whispered, eyes filling with tears.

“It’s…it’s fine, Pipes. Just…come back to me, okay? Don’t let them get to you in here. Eat the damn food they give you and…come back to me.” Alex turned away, not wanting Piper to see the tears in her eyes, but Piper caught her wrist, tugged her back, saw them anyway, and that was okay, too.

“I will,” Piper said softly. “I promise.”


End file.
